BATON ROUGE — Construction began Thursday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the upper platform that will be the home of ESPN basketball’s College Gameday Primetime Show Saturday night when No. 14 LSU plays host to No. 19 Connecticut.
The television production trucks for both Gameday and the actual game broadcast will arrive early Friday morning in preparation for the biggest television production ever inside the Maravich Center.
Besides the set on the middle concourse seating area, a set will be built after the LSU men and women practice Friday in preparation for College Gameday’s morning show that airs from 10-11 a.m. from the floor of the Maravich Center
The day of activities begins with that 10 a.m. show that is open with free admission to the public. Doors to the Maravich Center open will open at 8:45 a.m. and ESPN will have several live drop-ins as part of the network’s morning Sportscenter broadcast prior the Gameday broadcast. The first 250 fans will receive a free LSU t-shirt.
Students will enter the Maravich Center for Gameday through the student entrance, located at the top of the Southeast ramp. General Public will enter the Maravich Center through the doors at the top of the Southwest ramp, located on the same side of the PMAC as Mike the Tiger’s habitat. The ESPN Gameday broadcast will include features about the evening’s game by the broadcast team of Rece Davis, Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis and Andy Katz.
The first 260 LSU students through the doors for the Gameday broadcast will receive a voucher for seating in the 100-level student section for the game later that evening.
Following the conclusion of the hour-long Gameday broadcast, the Maravich Center will be cleared at 11 a.m. in preparation for the Tigers showdown with UConn that evening at 8 p.m. Dan Shulman, Dick Vitale and Erin Andrews will call the game broadcast.